Body-part Sales Raise Questions About Profits

April 26, 2002|By David Damron, Sentinel Staff Writer

An Alachua company that cleans and markets bone and skin from dead bodies for transplants is being investigated by the state on complaints the firm is selling body parts and deceiving donors and families about the profits involved, officials said Thursday.

Regeneration Technologies Inc., a for-profit spin-off from the University of Florida, is one of the biggest tissue processing companies in the world. It buys mainly skin and bones that nonprofit companies harvest from cadavers in morgues, hospitals and funeral homes.

While selling body parts is a federal crime, company officials and others in the for-profit industry have long maintained that they charge hospitals only for cleaning and refashioning body tissue, not for the actual human body pieces.

But Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth's economic crimes division is probing that distinction.

The state is also investigating whether families that offer up loved one's bodies are being adequately informed about the profits that are being made, and where donated parts end up.

Bone can be transplanted to heal painful spine conditions or repair knees, thus restoring mobility. Skin that's harvested and cleaned can treat burn victims or be used for face lifts and penis enlargements.

"Do consumers know and understand what the tissue is used for or could be used for?" Dykas said. "We want to make sure that an abuse of trust doesn't hurt people's confidence to donate."

The probe of Regeneration Technologies started late last year after the Attorney General's Office received complaints from nonprofit competitors in the industry.

Lake County Medical Examiner Valerie Rao voiced these same concerns two years ago to the Orlando Sentinel.

At that time, Rao had just taken over the Leesburg office and immediately banned the University of Florida Tissue Bank from collecting body parts in her morgue. The UF Tissue Bank, now called Southeast Tissue Alliance, remains one of Regeneration's largest suppliers.

Unlike organ donations, the tissue field is far less regulated.

Rao, a supporter of tissue donation, opted to work with the Central Florida Tissue Bank and the University of Miami Tissue Bank because they both deal almost exclusively with nonprofit processors.

Since then, Rao spoke before a U.S. Senate panel probing the tissue trade, and she's been asked to testify in a California lawsuit against another for-profit tissue processor.

"We know all this" about profit-making and lack of donor disclosure in the industry, Rao said of the state probe. "We need to start talking about standards."

Rao wants mandatory autopsies done on all harvested bodies, to lessen the chance diseases can be passed to the living. She is also pushing for tough donor-disclosure laws, and measures to ensure bodies are left in a respectable condition after harvesting.

Dykas said the UM Tissue Bank lodged the initial complaint against Regeneration. And the Southeast Tissue Alliance, which is no longer directly affiliated with the University of Florida, has since come within the state investigation's scope.

Company records are still being subpoenaed, and the probe may still be months from completion, Dykas said.